


Like clockwork

by minutemarch



Category: Rush (2013)
Genre: Angst and Fluff, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Multi - Freeform, Threesome - F/M/M, post accident
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-03
Updated: 2013-11-05
Packaged: 2017-12-31 08:38:56
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1029617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minutemarch/pseuds/minutemarch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Marlene has a very particular, delicate, problem with Niki after the accident.  Help comes her way in the form of James Hunt and she recruits him readily.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A bad beginning

**Author's Note:**

> This didn't happen. Only written for fun.

“He’s… doing alright.”  
James could hear the worry in Marlene’s voice as he got his update on Niki’s condition despite her efforts to hide it, or shield him from it. He’d assumed it anyway. How could she be anything else?  
“Do you need anything?” James asked, shifting anxiously by the small table the phone sat on.

“Congratulations, James. On The Netherlands. You drove very well.”  
James sighed to himself. Sometimes talking to Marlene was like fencing with a glass needle, a gentler version of his battle with Niki. If he didn’t adore her he’d complain but he never could and she had every right to deflect him. It had, after all, been her crash too.

Generally James Hunt struggled to understand women outside the bedroom but Marlene offered a careful clarity and cool intelligence most of his barflies never offered. It wasn’t the first time he’d thought Niki a very lucky man.

“Thank you. It just all went right for me that day.” Niki got his boasting but his humility he saved for Marlene.

“You drove well,’ she corrected him gently.

“I have a day, two days. I have two days,” James began.

“You have much to do. Italy is soon.”

“I know but the car is in good shape and…” James was expecting more argument but it didn’t come, another clear indication of how worried Marlene really was. 

“He’d like that. To see you. Your letter. I know that it helped him.” Her voice was warm, her gratitude genuine. Maybe something else too. Relief.

“I’ll be there soon.” 

“Have a safe trip, James.”

James hung up the phone and picked it up again to make another call.

~

Niki’s body was quickly growing as strong as it was before the accident. He ran, swam and cycled for hours each day. He ate as well as he could with an appetite that didn’t always co-operate. Marlene only coaxed him to rest those times he looked completely done in, respecting his ability to manage his own recovery (though she could never claim it was easy not to try and wrap him up in cotton wool sometimes. She wanted peace for him in the chaos. She didn’t want him to lose any more. She had to remind herself that wasn’t the way to preserve it.)

He sat through the agonising dressings changes, he endured sudden jerks of pain from his raw nerves, he coaxed a little more out of his tormented lungs each day. He kept taking the little blue pills that eased his discomfort but intensified his dreams.

Niki’s body was healing faster than anyone could have predicted, his spirit was stronger than ever, but his mind wasn’t enjoying such a steady climb. It was only Marlene who knew but she was sure that, soon, there’d be another to be woken by him in the night. 

She sat down to breakfast across from Niki, careful to keep her eyes on his, as she always had. It was easier when the bandages were fresh and unmarked.  
“Is it swimming first up today?” she asked conversationally.  
“Yes,” he confirmed. “I like to get it over first.”  
Marlene smiled. Niki used to enjoy swimming but having to keep his head out of the water made it a little more awkward. Now he only did it to build endurance. Marlene wondered if he’d ever be able to enjoy it again. That and… other things.

She slid the teapot towards him. “I’m going into town. Is there anything you need?”  
“Are you meeting a friend?” It was a question he asked her every day, not because he was suspicious but because, she realised, he was as worried for her in his own way. Did she have support too, he was asking.

“I am. Brigitta wished to join me for lunch. She has just returned from Barcelona and I’m sure she has some good stories to share.”

Niki thought for a moment. “I wouldn’t mind some more of that jam. With the lemon peel.”  
“Of course. I can get some on my way back.” Her tone shifted a little, her voice became softer. She didn’t want them to be overheard by the housestaff. “Should we go out? For dinner? There’s a new pl-”

“We have everything we need here,” Niki said tightly. The same answer he’d given her three times already since the turn of the week. He made an effort to soften his voice too, at the slight frown on her face. “We can have a lovely meal here. It will be nice. Just the two of us.”

Marlene smiled for him. “It’s all I want,” she said, reaching over to squeeze his hand briefly. It was a little white lie but only to hide her worry. If he needed longer, for some things, he’d have it. In other things she was more certain he needed to take the plunge. She knew she’d need to pick her moment there too.

The rest of the meal passed in companionable silence.

~

James was surprised when his knock was answered by the lady of the house herself.  
He learned on the door jam his small bag on his shoulder, Alastair’s shouting still resonating around his head. He smiled for her all the same. He’d deal with everything else later.  
“A sight for sore eyes, as always,” he said smoothly. Marlene’s smile was genuine, relieved.  
“I can say the same about you,” she said. “Come in.”

“Where’s His Lordship?” James asked, following Marlene into the guest lounge.  
“He’s out for a run. He’ll be back soon. Make yourself at home.” She poured him a whiskey without him having to ask and slipped it into his hand. 

He watched her fingers as she closed the bottle, putting it carefully aside. Her knuckles were smooth and a little too white. James wished he’d thought to bring her a gift, wish he had some idea of what to bring her that said ‘I’m sorry I broke your husband.’

Marlene didn’t pour herself a drink, only sat on the chair opposite him. James wanted to give her some assurance but he didn’t know where to start. He wasn’t used to not having the right words on call. He fidgeted with the glass in his hands.

“He’s running?” James asked with some surprise.  
“He is. Every day. He’s doing very well.”  
James didn’t miss the reservation in her response. He leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “But?”  
Marlene smiled sadly, grateful for James’ perception. “He’s doing well, at preparing for racing. As for getting back into life-” She shook her head, changing her mind. “You should talk to him. He’ll be back any minute. I’ll take your bag up to your room. Stay and finishing your drink. I’ll be back in a minute.”

She stood but James stood with her. “We’ll do what we can for him, right?” he assured her.  
Marlene nodded. “Always.”

As Marlene left him he wondered what she had meant about getting back into life. A few things occurred to him. Only of them would explain Marlene’s abrupt silence.  
 _oh_

When Marlene returned to the lounge they began to talk.

~

An hour later Niki came in from the bathroom, rubbing at the back of his neck with a small towel. “Thank you for picking up the jam-” He fell silent as two pairs of eyes greeted him. How own sharp gaze flickered between them. “What is this?” he asked, his eyes falling on James as he spoke to Marlene.  
“James wanted to see you,” Marlene said levelly.  
“You should be on the track. Why are you here, wasting your time?” Niki snapped, this time at James.  
“I think that’s my call isn’t it? How I want to spend my time?” James sounded assured. Niki frowned more deeply, the red skin around his eyes pulled tight like a mask. If the wounds that sent flecks of blood through his bandages troubled him they didn’t affect his ability to exude irritation.  
Marlene wasn’t deterred by it. “He’ll return to the track tomorrow,”she said. “I’m sure he’ll be able to make up a day’s time. Won’t you James?”  
“I’ve done it before, more than once,” James shrugged.  
Niki looked back and forth between them. Something was going on.

“I want him gone,” Niki snapped, turned on his heel and left. James took a step to follow but Marlene stopped him with a light touch on his wrist. “Let me.”

~

Marlene didn’t tell him he was being rude, she was sure he already knew it. She didn’t plead with him to come back or chase him down at a run. She only drew level with her long gait and gently touched his shoulder. It was enough.  
“Niki.” Her voice was gentle, soft, just for him. “He’s worried about you. He wants to see you’re alright.”  
“We have a telephone,” Niki countered stubbornly.  
Marlene sighed.  
“Niki, you know, don’t you? What it means to have a friend like that? What it means to _be_ a friend like that? He is here because it matters to him. Because you matter to him and it matters to me that he’s here.” She reached out and took his hand, leaned in close.  
“I’ve missed you, Andreas,” she said with a meaning he couldn’t mistake.

Niki swallowed, suddenly not sure where to look, his certainty deserting him. “I don’t know why- I’m right here,” he said, his tone more afraid that reassuring.  
Marlene reach up to gently touch the edge of his bandages. “If this was me, in these, would you stop wanting to be close with me?”  
“No. Of course not.” His answered without hesitation.  
“Then you understand,” Marlene said as she kissed his cheek.

Niki leaned into the kiss. It was about as far as their intimacy had gone since the accident but he found he didn’t want to draw away.  
“And James?”  
“We want you to know what you still have. He is important to you. As important as anyone. I saw you watching him.” Niki opened his mouth to protest but Marlene silenced him with a kiss.  
“It’s, alright, _amore_ , I understand.”  
Niki lowered his head and she carefully kissed his temple, taking his hand. “We’d like it very much if you’d come upstairs for a little while, my love.”  
“Both of you?”  
“Yes, my love.”  
“This is what you want?”  
Marlene thought for a moment. “It is, I think, what you need.” She squeezed his hand. “And so that makes it what I want.”  
Niki squeezed her hand. “I love you,” he said softly.  
It wasn’t a yes but it was a start and, when Marlene started walking towards the lounge, Niki went with her.

~

James stood where she’d left him, looking deeply uncomfortable, fully expecting to be ordered back on the plane by his stubborn friend. Niki didn’t met James’ eye but he was walking beside Marlene willingly, hand tight in hers. James could imagine the conversation they must have had. It hadn’t been his place to intrude but, then, he didn’t need to.

Marlene, though, took James’ hand like it was the most natural thing in the world and led them both towards the stairs.


	2. And then it rained

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marlene has a very particular, delicate, problem with Niki after the accident. Help comes her way in the form of James Hunt and she recruits him readily.

It was clear to the boys that Marlene was the director. It was also clear to James that she had thought about this before, maybe for some time. He couldn’t say he wasn’t surprised and if anyone else had directed him to this place he’d have told them where to get off but there was significance cloaked around them. James didn’t want to leave without doing this one thing. He knew that was all it would be. One thing, the one thing most needed on this day, this time.

Once the bedroom door was closed Marlene dropped their hands and turned to face them, a smile that could only be described as naughty on her face. James was sure it was a face Niki was well used to but it sent James’ heart into an enthusiastic little flutter. There was no way he was going to kiss Niki’s wife without both of their invitation though. He was damn sure he wasn’t there to make Niki feel even more insecure.

Niki wasn’t making a move but both James and Marlene expected that. Marlene moved into kiss him, on the mouth, coaxing his lips apart, a kiss with _intent._  
Her eyes went to James, expression an invitation to do what he felt.

“Missed you, rat,” he said, placing a hand on Niki’s upper arm, stroking it with his large hand. “It’s dull without you.” He stepped in, his very first kiss goes to Niki’s throat, clear and unbroken skin, a gentle start but Niki gasped at the twin kisses, tried to move into both at the same time and the others stood assured.

“I see you did alright. Without the… competition.”  
“Oh I did alright. Just got a bit dull on the podium without you to look down on.”  
Niki snorted, more amused than annoyed. It had been so long since he’d experienced business as usual it washed over him like warm water on a cold day. It was proof it was possible. It was proof not everything had burned. 

Marlene looked at James with gratitude as he ripped into her husband. She understood. She always understood.

It was Niki who moved them closer to the bed, carefully placing his feet so they could hold contact.   
To James and Marlene it was as if a mythical creature had come to eat from their hand. They both moved as slowly, not wanting to push or spook him.

They found themselves laying on the large bed, Niki safely in the middle. Somewhere in their little crab dance across the room his buttons had been pulled undone.

They kept the kisses to his face and neck until they could feel him relax. Marlene was first on her knees, pressing little kisses over Niki’s chest as James peeled the fabric of his shirt back. 

His soft groans were all the incentive they needed.

“You like this hmmm?” Marlene said warmly. To her he said a heated “Yes.” It had been so long. He’d missed it. Didn’t know how much he’d missed it.  
“You don’t taste bad for a rat,” James said, sucking at Niki’s collarbone.  
To James he said “Fuck you.”  
“If you like,” James purred against his skin.

Niki reached up to knot his fingers in their hair, stroking their scalps, thankfully whole and intact. He hoped they always remained so.

It was Marlene who guided James’ hand to Niki’s length, their eyes meeting over Niki’s prone form. She whispered something in his ear and James nodded. Niki watched the exchange with great interest. A moment later Marlena moved up to his head.

“Your dressings need changing, my love,” she said softly. “I think it will be good for you to let your skin breathe for a while, like the doctor suggested.”  
Niki tensed at that, as she expected, but James’ hand didn’t let up, as they’d arranged.

“Don’t… need to...yet.”  
“It’s been left too long already,” she said gently but firmly. Her voice went softer still. “It’s alright, my Niki. Here it’s alright.” Louder she said, “James? Can I have your help?”

As if rehearsed ( _what were you talking about before I came in?_ Niki wondered) James clamped his lips onto Niki’s throat, still rubbing him through his pants as Marlene began the painful process of peeling off the bandages. 

James had got all of his staring out of the way in the lounge but, now, as the extent of Niki’s injuries were revealed, he found his eyes drifting upwards again, clouded in sympathy he’d never express any other way. He dropped his eyes as fast, eager to avoid being caught. Part of his job was to get used to it quicker than Niki could see him react.

He busied himself sucking a different kind of blemish into Niki’s skin to counter the pain in his head. He had no idea of he was causing Niki’s gasps or Marlene was. Likely both.

“So that’s what rats sound like when they’re having a good time,” James said, trying to turn Niki’s thoughts to the pleasurable side of things. “Can you squeak for me?”

Niki punched James’ arm and again, harder. It barely hurt. James looked up at the catch of skin on bandage as Niki hit a third time and understood.

“I couldn’t hear that Niki. You’ll have to be a bit louder.”  
The thump got a little harder.  
“In English if you can manage!”  
“Fuck you Hu-” a sharp gasp and it was over. Pale fingers needled their way into James’ arm for a moment before letting go.  
Marlene kissed the left side of Niki’s head. “I think he tastes a good deal nicer than a rat,” she grinned at James.

“I am worried about both of your diets.” Niki’s tone was ironic. 

When they laughed Niki couldn’t resist chuckling with them.

Tender fingers divested him of his clothing down to his shorts, kisses training over his skin. In return he tugged up the hem off Marlene’s shirt, inviting her to join him. Her clothes followed his over the side of the bed.

In minutes all three sat in their underthings as a heavy rain began to beat into the window above them.

Niki’s tension sat behind his eyes and ran all the way down to his feet. James’ hands intercepted it deftly, stroking their way up Niki’s legs from his ankles as Marlene leaned down to draw him into a long, slow, kiss. She watched his eyes roll back into his head with satisfaction.

They stayed like that for minutes, taking their time, losing track of it. James looked up at Niki’s head while he was distracted and closed his eyes for a moment. He couldn’t let the sink of his heart make its way to his fingers. He made himself look at Niki’s cheeks, his jaw, the hand of his wife curled around the back of his head, made himself take in the gasps at everything Niki was feeling. More than his wounds. So much more.

“I think,” Marlene said, breaking the kiss but staying close “it’s polite to allow the guest to go first.”

She turned to smile at James and James bit his own tongue as he smiled back.


	3. The eye of the storm

Niki looked up at Marlene, cupping her face gently. It was his turn to whisper in her ear. “I want to do something for you. Please lay beside me.”  
“Of course, my love,” she said with great affection, slipping off her bra and settling beside him, hand still cradling his head gently.

He nudged James with his leg. “No biting,” he said, which was Niki for, ‘ _yes you may do that thing you plan on doing_.’  
James kissed his knee, brushing his teeth against the bone there. “I think I can contain _my_ teeth.”   
Niki kicked him again, a grin on his face.

Marlene nuzzled Niki happily, finding joy in his joy and excitement in returning to a place she’d missed as much as he had, perhaps more. She was well and truly ready to climb over this wall.  
He whispered something else to her and she kissed his cheek immediately. “Yes. You are,” she said in return.

Marlene shifted a little closer to Niki, squeezing James’ hand briefly in encouragement as she went to drape her arm over her husband. It wasn’t Niki James was worried about offending and Marlene sensed that well enough, giving her permission as many times as he needed it. 

It was all the invitation James needed to pull the last thread of Niki’s clothing off and away.

As the Englishman’s mouth found their mark Niki himself turned his attention to his wife who, in turn, was enjoying the gasp from Niki’s lips.  
Lips and tongue tangled together as Niki made the first move towards reconnecting. His narrow hand slipped between Marlene’s legs and it was his turn to smile at her gasp. She hummed against his fractured hair, showing him how very much she wanted him to continue. There was no way Niki was going to keep to a passive roll. 

He was a calculating lover but not nearly so as coldly as he was at the track. He knew just where to place his fingers but his eyes were full of expression, his lips turned up in a wicked grin. In the bedroom he let go.

Marlene laughed as Niki laughed, breathy and a little rusty. Neither of them had properly laughed since the ‘Ring and now it came rippling out of them like they were surprised by it. 

Endorphins flooded Niki’s system as he both relaxed and became more stimulated, joining the less-powerful drugs already in his system, sending pain to a far reach of his awareness. Why hadn’t it occurred to him to try this? Why had he pushed it away? Vanity? Projected disgust? He regretted his poor strategy but only for a moment. Negative thoughts couldn’t stay for long.

“Dammit faster Hunt!” he commended, not enough breath in his voice to give up much heat. “Don’t hold back-  
“Don’t… dammit.”

“You’ll get there,” Marlene assured him with a kiss. “And so will I.” She didn’t rush Niki’s steady pace, knowing it would be far better if she didn’t, rocking back and forth against his hand at a steady pace, happy just to be so close to him again.

They breathed into each other mouths, gasped together and in turn as they both unwound. As they all unwound.

James’ eyes turned to look up Niki’s body and he groaned. He wasn’t there for himself but _damn_. What a thing to see.

He hoped he’d have a chance to deal with… certain things, before he left.

James’ hand on Niki’s balls made him unfold, sliding down the bed a little into the friction. Marlene went with him, kissing him harder as his fingers reacted against her.   
“Does that feel good, my Niki? What James is doing?” she purred.  
The noise Niki made sounded both affirmative and broken.

James’ jaw was starting to ache but he’d come prepared to spend time. He ignored the small pain, puffing out his cheeks and running his tongue over Niki’s tip. He could tell Niki was close but his mouth was tied up. (And if he was to stop he was sure he’d be kicked again.) He had to leave Marlene to do the speaking for now.

Niki’s other hand was locked in Marlene’s, their eyes fixed on each other as they both climbed closer and closer to the peek. Niki’s co-ordination started to slip as he tettered on the edge. Marlene’s hand covered his as she whispered, “It’s okay, I can wait a moment.” For her it would be just as good.

Niki’s hand relaxed as his back arched, filling James’ mouth at the same time as the realisation James hadn’t pulled away hit him. He flowed into that perfect heat, his body alive with a beautiful weakness that felt like strength.

He breathed in, for the first time in weeks free of pain.


End file.
